Avoid These Flooring Pitfalls: Expert Advice from a 20-Year Industry Veteran

What Are The Biggest Mistakes Homeowners Make When Choosing Flooring?

Making the wrong flooring choice can cost you thousands in wasted money and countless hours of frustration. Just ask the homeowner who thought she was saving $4,000 by choosing a cheaper contractor, only to end up spending double when the installation failed catastrophically three months later.

Hunter Ross, owner of Wood Floors of Dallas and veteran of over 20 years in the industry, shares eye-opening insights about the most common pitfalls homeowners face when selecting and installing new flooring. The episode tackles the information paradox many face – either becoming overwhelmed with conflicting research or not knowing enough to make informed decisions. Hunter emphasizes the critical importance of finding a trustworthy flooring specialist who provides honest guidance tailored to your specific needs.

The conversation dives deep into technical considerations that many overlook, including proper subfloor preparation, moisture protection, and how changing floor types affects everything from door clearances to baseboards. Hunter explains why "level" floors don't exist (though "flat" floors are essential), why hardwood doesn't belong in bathrooms, and how choosing the right material for homes with pets can save significant heartache down the road. Most importantly, he reveals why accountability matters – and why established flooring stores offer protections that independent contractors often cannot.

Whether you're planning a renovation soon or just want to understand what makes for a successful flooring project, this episode provides invaluable wisdom that could potentially save you thousands of dollars and prevent costly mistakes. Call 972-525-0026 for a free in-home consultation and ensure your next flooring project is done right the first time.

To learn more about Wood Floors of Dallas visit:
https://www.WoodFloorDallas.com
Wood Floors of Dallas
159 W. Main St., Suite 200
Lewisville, Texas 75057
972-525-0026

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Wood Floors of Dallas podcast, where
we bring expert insights onhardwood flooring design and
craftsmanship, hosted by HunterRoss, owner of Wood Floors of
Dallas, with over 20 years inthe building product industry.
Whether you're a homeowner or ageneral contractor, we're here

(00:27):
to help you create amazingspaces with honor, quality and
expertise.
Let's get started.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Flooring is a major investment and the wrong choice
can lead to regret.
We break down the commonpitfalls so you can make the
right decision the first time.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm Sophia Yvette, co-host,slash producer, back in the
studio with Hunter Ross, ownerof Wood Floors of Dallas Hunter.
How's it going today?

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Hey Sophia, it's going really good.
How are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I'm also doing good, hunter, and that is great to
hear.
So for our listeners, who maynot know what are the biggest
mistakes homeowners make whenchoosing flooring, yeah, sure,
good question.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
I would say there is a lot of different things that
homeowners kind of getthemselves into when they're
choosing flooring.
That can be a pitfall.
A couple of things to focus on.
For sure is there are twothings that I hear and I see the
most.
Number one is that peopleover-educate themselves and so
they get inundated with so muchinformation that they don't know
what's true, or they'reundereducated and so they really

(01:46):
don't have any idea about whereto start.
So really, if I could say, thenumber one thing that you should
do in order to make sure youdon't make a mistake is spend
enough time and talk to enoughdifferent flooring providers,
hardwood specialists.
You want to get a specialist inthe trade of what you're
wanting to do.
You want to spend some timeinterviewing different people to

(02:08):
find a trust level of someonethat you think is actually going
to shoot you straight and andtell you the truth, whether you
like it or not.
Some homeowners do lots ofresearch and they think they've
read all the data on everysingle thing that you can buy.
And they come in and they'refiring questions off at you and
you're like, okay, hold on.
But yeah, that thing is nottrue.
And then I don't know where youheard that from, but that's not

(02:29):
true.
So you really have to trust theperson that's giving you the
advice, that they're going togive you the best advice to take
care of you Right?
So a couple of things whenyou're going into look at
different flooring is make sureyou choose the right flooring
for the application so you don'twant to put, like, let's say,
hardwood in a bathroom,traditionally not a good spot

(02:50):
for it.
Keep that clean, do resilient,like vinyl or tile, in your wet
areas.
And then make sure that if youhave dogs or pets or things like
that, you want to make sureyou're buying a durable surface
that can stand up to those andwe covered those in a previous
podcast.
So big dogs and things likethat you want to make sure
you're getting a flooring thatcan stand up to those.

(03:11):
And then, when it comes tomaking this decision on who you
go with, is where a lot ofpeople get in trouble and they
cost them a lot of money.
I'll give you a quick example.
I had a customer that I wasdealing with probably about six
months ago and she came to me.
She wanted to get newengineered hardwoods.
I explained to her that thereis a big difference in quality

(03:33):
between the brands.
She had done her research andkind of settled on a certain
brand.
I expressed my differences withher.
She was also talking to acouple other contractors, which
is normal and fine.
I expressed to her that we area store, which is a lot
different than somebody thatjust kind of like works out of
the back of the truck becausethere's not a lot of
accountability there, right?

(03:54):
So if somebody does your floorand then they're gone, you try
to get them on the phone andyou're never going to see them
again.
But when we have a store, youcan actually physically there's
a place to hold accountability,right.
You can walk in and say, hey, Ihave a problem.
So picking the right contractoris very important, obviously,
but trust in the propereducation is the best things
that's going to keep you out oftrouble.

(04:15):
So what happened with thisclient is I tried to give her
the best information.
She didn't want to listen, youknow, which is fine.
Make your own decisions, but I,I, if you do this, then this
will happen, right.
And about three months after shegot her flooring done by this

(04:37):
other contractor, she called meand she was basically in tears
and she said you know, hunter, Ineed you to come look at my
floors.
Yeah, yeah, everything gotmessed up.
Can you come help me and rescuethis situation?
I went over there and this ladyhad spent around $12,000.
My estimate was around 16.

(04:59):
She had spent around $12,000and paid this contractor to do
it and he messed it up and wouldnot fix it.
So everything that I told hercame true.
So now she's asking us to comeback and she's apologized and
said she should have done itwith us.
So now, instead of it being16,000, it ended up being like
18,000 because of the stuff thatwe had to fix that they messed

(05:21):
up, to tear everything back outand then re-put her new floors
in.
So she had to pay more thandouble what the cost of her
flooring should be, because shepaid for it and she had to tear
it all back out.
Okay, so that is a very, veryreal thing and it happens way
more than you know.
I've had it happen dozens oftimes over my career where

(05:42):
somebody called me back laterand told me they should have
went with us because they triedto save some money and it got
messed up.
Okay, so do your due diligence.
Look at all the reviews ofeverybody that you're working
with.
Buy from a store if you can foraccountability and make sure
you choose the right productsLike those are the keys.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Oh my goodness, what a learning moment.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yes, yes, sophia, you would not have any idea about
how often that happens.
Most of the time people makethat decision and they think
they save money and they don'ttell anybody because it's
embarrassing.
You think you're making theright decision, but you end up
not, so yep, better to do yourdue diligence ahead of time and

(06:25):
make the best decision, even ifit costs a little bit more, for
that safety.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Wow, Well, getting into a bit more of the specific
sides of messing up the flooring.
What are the risks of improperinstallation and how can you
avoid them?

Speaker 3 (06:52):
important thing about any floor installation is the
preparation of the surfacebefore the flooring goes down.
So, whether you have a slabfoundation or a pier and beam
foundation, what we need as aninstallation professional is we
need that floor to be as flat aspossible.
Quick note there is no suchthing as a level floor.
People often say, oh, I need myfloors to be level.
Well, if you're talking aboutusing a real level, that's not a

(07:14):
thing.
We just need it to be flat,right, because no house is level
.
I've never found one yet.
So we do a lot to prepare thesurface.
So, if it's like on a slab, wedo a lot of floating, which is
like a seven inches floor floatto fill in the gaps, the low
spots, and then we grind thehigh spots and then we make it

(07:34):
nice and flat and smooth.
So that's really important forthe success of your installation
.
The other thing is you want tohave moisture protection if you
can.
So most companies like for avinyl plank installation, we put
a six mil poly underneath.
That's a moisture barrier forengineered hardwood.
We always test the slab formoisture to make sure there's no

(07:56):
moisture in there and if thereis, we can put a roll on
moisture barrier over it toprotect the material.
So those are kind of like twokey pitfalls to make sure the
installation goes right.
Some of the things you need toconsider for a successful
installation and make sure itdoesn't get messed up is how
high is the trim.
Your baseboards and your trimaround your doors can be
different heights right,depending on what floor you had

(08:18):
before.
So if you had solid hardwoodright and you just had a little
bit and you want to switch itout and you want to put in like
an engineered hardwood, that'sgoing to drop the overall
profile from the bottom of thedoor If it's filled in with this
much solid hardwood because youhave your three quarter inch
plywood and your three quarterinch solid and you go down half

(08:38):
that.
Now you got a gap, all right.
Now you got a big gap thatyou're going to have to overcome
on all your door casings.
So you put the floor in and nowyou got a giant hole.
Well, if nobody told you aboutthat ahead of time, guess what?
Now you got to redo all of yourcasings and all your house, and
that can get extremelyexpensive.
So make sure you're workingwith a contractor that can go

(09:00):
over the little details with you.
If you call us, we willmeticulously go over every
single little detail so that youknow ahead of time what you're
getting into.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Wow, well, thank you so much for stopping in today,
Hunter.
We'll catch you in the nextepisode.
Have a fantastic rest of yourday.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
Thank you, sophia, have a good one.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Thanks for tuning in to Wood Floors of Dallas podcast
.
Ready to transform your space?
Call 972-525-0026 for a freein-home consultation or visit
woodfloordallascom to learn more.
Work with honor, build withexcellence.

(09:49):
See you next time.